A Smaller History of Greece ... New edition, thoroughly revised by G. E. Marindin, etc.

which blockaded Mytilene both by sea and land, The Peloponnesianspromised their assistance; but from various causes their fleetwas unable to reach the place. Meanwhile the provisions of thetown were exhausted, and it was therefore resolved, as a lastdesperate expedient, to make a sally, and endeavour to raise theblockade. With this view even the men of the lower classes werearmed with the full armour of the hoplites. But this stepproduced a very different result from what had been expected orintended. The great mass of the Mytileneans regarded their ownoligarchical government with suspicion and now threatened that,unless their demands were complied with, they would surrender thecity to the Athenians. In this desperate emergency theMytilenean government perceived that their only chance of safetylay in anticipating the people in this step. They accordinglyopened a negotiation with Paches, the Athenian commander, and acapitulation was agreed upon by which the city was to besurrendered and the fate of its inhabitants to be decided by theAthenian Assembly.

At Athens the disposal of the prisoners caused great debate. Itwas on this occasion that the leather-seller Cleon first comesprominently forward in Athenian affairs. If we may trust thepicture drawn by the comic poet Aristophanes, Cleon was a perfectmodel of a low-born demagogue; a noisy brawler, insolent in hisgestures, corrupt and venal in his principles. Much allowancemust no doubt be made for comic licence and exaggeration in thisportrait, but even a caricature must have some grounds of truthfor its basis. It was this man who took the lead in the debaterespecting the disposal of the Mytileneans, and made the savageand horrible proposal to put to death the whole male populationof Mytilene of military age, and to sell the women and childreninto slavery. This motion he succeeded in carrying and a triremewas immediately despatched to Mytilene, conveying orders toPaches to carry the bloody decree into execution. This barbarousdecree made no discrimination between the innocent and theguilty; and on the morrow so general a feeling prevailed of thehorrible injustice that had been committed, that the magistratesacceded to the prayer of the Mytilenean envoys and called a freshassembly. Notwithstanding the violent opposition of Creon, themajority of the assembly reversed their former decree andresolved that the Mytileneans already in custody should be putupon their trial, but that the remainder of the population shouldbe spared. A second trireme was immediately despatched toMytilene, with orders to Paches to arrest the execution. Theutmost diligence was needful. The former trireme had a start offour-and-twenty hours, and nothing but exertions almostsuperhuman would enable the second to reach Mytilene early enoughto avert the tragical catastrophe, The oarsmen were allowed byturns only short intervals of rest, and took their food,consisting of barley-meal steeped in wine and oil, as they sat atthe oar. Happily the weather proved favourable; and the crew,who had been promised large rewards in case they arrived in time,exerted themselves to deliver the reprieve, whilst the crew ofthe preceding vessel had conveyed the order for execution withslowness and reluctance. Yet even so the countermand came onlyjust in time. The mandate was already in the hands of Paches,who was taking measures for its execution. The fortifications ofMytilene were razed, and her fleet delivered up to the Athenians.

The fate of the Plataeans and Mytileneans affords a fearfulillustration of the manners of the age; but these horrors soonfound a parallel in Corcyra. A fearful struggle took place inthis island between the aristocratical and democratical parties.The people at length obtained the mastery, and the vengeancewhich they took on their opponents was fearful. The most sacredsanctuaries afforded no protection; the nearest ties of blood andkindred were sacrificed to civil hatred. In one case a fatherslew even his own son. These scenes of horror lasted for sevendays, during which death in every conceivable form was busily atwork.

The seventh year of the war (B.C. 425) was marked by an importantevent. An Athenian fleet was detained by bad weather at Pylus inMessenia, on the modern bay of Navarino. Demosthenes, an activeAthenian officer, who was on board the fleet, thought it aneligible spot on which to establish some of the Messenians fromNaupactus, since it was a strong position, from which they mightannoy the Lacedaemonians, and excite revolt among their Helotkinsmen. As the bad weather continued for some time, thesoldiers on board amused themselves, under the directions ofDemosthenes, in constructing a sort of rude fortification. Thenature of the ground was favourable for the work, and in five orsix days a wall was throws up sufficient for the purposes ofdefence. Demosthenes undertook to garrison the place; and fiveships and 200 hoplites were left behind with him.

This insult to the Lacedaemonian territory caused great alarm andindignation at Sparta. The Peloponnesian fleet was ordered toPylus; and the Lacedaemonian commander, on arriving with thefleet, immediately occupied the small uninhabited and denselywooded island of Sphacteria, which, with the exception of twonarrow channels on the north and south, almost blocked up theentrance of the bay. Between the island and the mainland was aspacious basin, in which the fleet took up its station. TheLacedaemonians lost no time in attacking the fortress; butnotwithstanding their repeated attempts they were unable toeffect a landing.

Whilst they were preparing for another assault, they weresurprised by the appearance of the Athenian fleet. They hadstrangely neglected to secure the entrances into the bay: and,when the Athenian ships came sailing through both the undefendedchannels, many of their triremes were still moored, and part oftheir crews ashore. The battle which ensued was desperate. Bothsides fought with extraordinary valour; but victory at lengthdeclared for the Athenians. Five Peloponnesian ships werecaptured; the rest were saved only by running them ashore, wherethey were protected by the Lacedaemonian army.

The Athenians, thus masters of the sea, were enabled to blockadethe island of Sphacteria, in which the flower of theLacedaemonian army was shut up, many of them native Spartans ofthe highest families. In so grave an emergency messengers weresent to Sparta for advice. The Ephors themselves immediatelyrepaired to the spot; and so desponding was their view of thematter, that they saw no issue from it but a peace. Theytherefore proposed and obtained an armistice for the purpose ofopening negotiations at Athens. But the Athenians, at theinstigation of Cleon, insisted upon the most extravagant demands,and hostilities were accordingly resumed. They were not howeverattended with any decisive result. The blockade of Sphacteriabegan to grow tedious and harassing. The force upon itcontinually received supplies of provisions either from swimmers,who towed skins filled with linseed and poppy-seed mixed withhoney, or from Helots, who, induced by the promise of largerewards, eluded the blockading squadron during dark and stormynights, and landed cargoes on the back of the island. Thesummer, moreover, was fast wearing away, and the storms of wintermight probably necessitate the raising of the blockadealtogether. Under these circumstances, Demosthenes began tocontemplate a descent upon the island; with which view he sent amessage to Athens to explain the unfavourable state of theblockade, and to request further assistance.

These tidings were very distasteful to the Athenians, who hadlooked upon Sphacteria as their certain prey. They began toregret having let slip the favourable opportunity for making apeace, and to vent their displeasure upon Cleon, the director oftheir conduct on that occasion. But Cleon put on a face ofbrass. He abused the Strategi. His political opponent, Nicias,was then one of those officers, a man of quiet disposition andmoderate abilities, but thoroughly honest and incorruptible. HimCleon now singled out for his vituperation, and, pointing at himwith his finger, exclaimed--"It would be easy enough to take theisland if our generals were MEN. If I were General, I would doit at once!" This burst of the tanner made the assembly laugh.He was saluted with cries of "Why don't you go, then?" andNicias, thinking probably to catch his opponent in his own trap,seconded the voice of the assembly by offering to place at hisdisposal whatever force he might deem necessary for theenterprise. Cleon at first endeavoured to avoid the dangeroushonour thus thrust upon him. But the more he drew back thelouder were the assembly in calling upon him to accept theoffice; and as Nicias seriously repeated his proposition, headopted with a good grace what there was no longer anypossibility of evading, and asserted that he would takeSphacteria within twenty days, and either kill all theLacedaemonians upon it, or bring them prisoners to Athens.

Never did general set out upon an enterprise under circumstancesmore singular; but, what was still more extraordinary, fortuneenabled him to make his promise good. In fact, as we have seen,Demosthenes had already resolved on attacking the island; andwhen Cleon arrived at Pylus he found everything prepared for theassault. Accident favoured the enterprise. A fire kindled bysome Athenian sailors, who had landed for the purpose of cookingtheir dinner, caught and destroyed the woods with which theisland was overgrown, and thus deprived the Lacedaemonians of oneof their principal defences. Nevertheless such was the aweinspired by the reputation of the Spartan army that Demosthenesconsidered it necessary to land about 10,000 soldiers ofdifferent descriptions, although the Lacedaemonian forceconsisted of only about 420 men. But this small force for a longwhile kept their assailants at bay; till some Messenians,stealing round by the sea-shore, over crags and cliffs which theLacedaemonians had deemed impracticable, suddenly appeared on thehigh ground which overhung their rear. They now began to giveway, and would soon have been all slain; but Cleon andDemosthenes, being anxious to carry them prisoners to Athens,sent a herald to summon them to surrender. The latter, in tokenof compliance, dropped their shields, and waved their hands abovetheir heads. They requested, however, permission to communicatewith their countrymen on the mainland; who, after two or threecommunications, sent them a final message--"to take counsel forthemselves, but to do nothing disgraceful." The survivors thensurrendered. They were 292 in number, 120 of whom were nativeSpartans belonging to the first families. By this surrender theprestige of the Spartan arms was in a great degree destroyed.The Spartans were not, indeed, deemed invincible; but theirprevious feats, especially at Thermopylae, had inspired thenotion that they would rather die than yield; an opinion whichcould now no longer be entertained.

Cleon had thus performed his promise. On the day after thevictory he and Demosthenes started with the prisoners for Athens,where they arrived within 20 days from the time of Cleon'sdeparture. Altogether, this affair was one of the mostfavourable for the Athenians that had occurred during the war.The prisoners would serve not only for a guarantee against futureinvasions, which might be averted by threatening to put them todeath, but also as a means for extorting advantageous conditionswhenever a peace should be concluded. Nay, the victory itselfwas of considerable importance, since it enabled the Athenians toplace Pylus in a better posture of defence, and, by garrisoningit with Messenians from Naupactus, to create a stronghold whenceLaconia might be overrun and ravaged at pleasure. TheLacedaemonians themselves were so sensible of these things, thatthey sent repeated messages to Athens to propose a peace, butwhich the Athenians altogether disregarded.

The eighth year of the war (B.C. 424) opened with brilliantprospects for the Athenians. Elate with their continued goodfortune, they aimed at nothing less than the recovery of all thepossessions which they had held before the Thirty Years' Truce.for this purpose they planned an expedition against Boeotia. Buttheir good fortune had now reached its culminatiug point. Theywere defeated by the Boeotians with great loss at the battle ofDelium, which was the greatest and most decisive engagementfought during the first period of the war an interesting featureof the battle is that both Socrates and his pupil Alcibiades wereengaged in it, the former among the hoplites, the latter in thecavalry. Socrates distinguished himself by his bravery, and wasone of those who, instead of throwing down their arms, kepttogether in a compact body, and repulsed the attacks of thepursuing horse. His retreat was also protected by Alcibiades.

This disastrous battle was speedily followed by the overthrow ofthe Athenian empire in Thrace. At the request of Perdiccas, Kingof Macedonia, and of the Chalcidian towns, who had sued for helpagainst the Athenians, Brasidas was sent by the Lacedaemoniangovernment into Macedonia, at the head of a small body of troops.On his arrival in Macedonia he proclaimed that he was come todeliver the Grecian cities from the tyrannous yoke of Athens.His bravery, his kind and conciliating demeanour, his probity,moderation, and good faith, soon gained him the respect and loveof the allies of Athens in that quarter. Acanthus and Stagirushastened to open their gates to him; and early in the ensuingwinter, by means of forced marches, he suddenly and unexpectedlyappeared before the important Athenian colony of Amphipolis onthe Strymon. In that town the Athenian party sent a message forassistance to Thucydides, the historian, who was then general inthose parts. Thucydides hastened with seven ships from Thasos,and succeeded in securing Eion at the mouth of the Strymon; butAmphipolis, which lay a little higher up the river, allured bythe favourable terms offered, had already surrendered toBrasidas. For his want of vigilance on this occasion, Thucydideswas, on the motion of Cleon, sentenced to banishment, and spentthe following twenty years of his life in exile. Torone, Scione,and other towns also revolted from Athens.

In the following year (B.C. 422) Cleon was sent to Macedonia torecover the Athenian dependencies, and especially Amphipolis. Heencamped on a rising ground on the eastern side of the town.Having deserted the peaceful art of dressing hides for the morehazardous trade of war, in which he was almost totallyinexperienced, and having now no Demosthenes to direct hismovements, Cleon was thrown completely off his guard by a veryordinary stratagem on the part of Brasidas, who contrived to givethe town quite a deserted and peaceful appearance. Cleonsuffered his troops to fall into disorder, till he was suddenlysurprised by the astounding news that Brasidas was preparing fora sally. Cleon at once resolved to retreat. But his skill wasequal to his valour. He conducted his retreat in the mostdisorderly manner. His left wing had already filed off and hiscentre with straggling ranks was in the act of following, whenBrasidas ordered the gates of the town to be flung open, and,rushing out at the head of only 150 chosen soldiers, charged theretreating columns in flank. They were immediately routed; butBrasidas received a mortal wound and was carried off the field.Though his men were forming on the hill, Cleon fled as fast as hecould on the approach of the enemy, but was pursued and slain bya Thracian peltast. In spite, however, of the disgraceful flightof their general, the right wing maintained their ground for aconsiderable time, till some cavalry and peltasts issuing fromAmphipolis attacked them in flank and rear, and compelled them tofly. On assembling again at Eion it was found that half theAthenian hoplites had been slain. Brasidas was carried intoAmphipolis, and lived long enough to receive the tidings of hisvictory. He was interred within the walls with great militarypomp in the centre of what thenceforth became the chief agora; hewas proclaimed oecist, or founder of the town; and was worshippedas a hero with annual games and sacrifices.

By the death of Brasidas and Cleon the two chief obstacles to apeace were removed; for the former loved war for the sake of itsglory, the latter for the handle which it afforded for agitationand for attacking his political opponents. The Athenian Nicias,and the Spartan king Pleistoanax, zealously forwarded thenegotiations, and in the spring of the year B.C. 421 a peace for50 years, commonly called the PEACE OF NICIAS, was concluded onthe basis of a mutual restitution of prisoners and placescaptured during the war.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.--SECOND PERIOD, FROM THE PEACE OF NICIASTO THE DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS IN SICILY, B.C. 421-413.

Several of the allies of Sparta were dissatisfied with the peacewhich she had concluded; and soon afterwards some of themdetermined to revive the ancient pretensions of Argos, and tomake her the head of a new confederacy, which should include allGreece, with the exception of Sparta and Athens. The movementwas begun by the Corinthians, and the league was soon joined bythe Eleans, the Mantineans, and the Chalcidians.

Between Sparta and Athens themselves matters were far from beingon a satisfactory footing. Sparta confessed her inability tocompel the Boeotians and Corinthians to accede to the peace, oreven to restore the town of Amphipolis. Athens consequentlyrefused to evacuate Pylus, though she removed the Helots andMessenians from it. In the negotiations which ensued respectingthe surrender of Pylus, Alcibiades took a prominent part. Thisextraordinary man had already obtained immense influence atAthens. Young, rich, handsome, profligate, and clever,Alcibiades was the very model of an Athenian man of fashion. Inlineage he was a striking contrast to the plebeian orators of theday. He traced his paternal descent from Ajax, whilst on hismother's side he claimed relationship with the Alcmaeonidae andconsequently with Pericles. On the death of his father CliniasPericles had become his guardian. From early youth the conductof Alcibiades was marked by violence, recklessness, and vanity.He delighted in astonishing the more sober portion of thecitizens by his capricious and extravagant feats. He was utterlydestitute of morality, whether public or private. But his viceswere partly redeemed by some brilliant qualities. He possessedboth boldness of design and vigour of action; and, thoughscarcely more than thirty at the time of which we are nowspeaking, he had already on several occasions distinguishedhimself by his bravery. His more serious studies were madesubservient to the purposes of his ambition, for which some skillas an orator was necessary. In order to attain it he frequentedthe schools of the sophists, and exercised himself in thedialectics of Prodicus, Protagoras, and above all of Socrates.

Such was the man who now opposed the application of theLacedaemonian ambassadors. Their reception had been sofavourable, that Alcibiades alarmed at the prospect of theirsuccess, resorted to a trick in order to defeat it. He calledupon the Lacedaemonian envoys, one of whom happened to be hispersonal friend; and he advised them not to tell the Assemblythat they were furnished with full powers, as in that case thepeople would bully them into extravagant concessions, but ratherto say that they were merely come to discuss and report. Hepromised, if they did so, to speak in their favour, and inducethe Assembly to grant the restitution of Pylus, to which hehimself had hitherto been the chief obstacle. Accordingly on thenext day, when the ambassadors were introduced into the Assembly,Alcibiades, assuming his blandest tone and most winning smile,asked them on what footing they came and what were their powers.In reply to these questions, the ambassadors, who only a day ortwo before had told Nicias and the Senate that they were come asplenipotentiaries, now publicly declared, in the face of theAssembly, that they were not authorized to conclude, but only tonegotiate and discuss. At this announcement, those who had heardtheir previous declaration could scarcely believe their ears. Auniversal burst of indignation broke forth at this exhibition ofSpartan duplicity; whilst, to wind up the scene, Alcibiades,affecting to be more surprised than any, distinguished himself bybeing the loudest and bitterest in his invectives against theperfidy of the Lacedaemonians.

Shortly afterwards Alcibiades procured the completion of a treatyof alliance for 100 years with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea (B.C.420). Thus were the Grecian states involved in a complicity ofseparate and often apparently opposite alliances. It was evidentthat allies so heterogeneous could not long hold together;nevertheless, nominally at least, peace was at first observed.

In the July which followed the treaty with Argos, the Olympicgames, which recurred every fourth year, were to be celebrated.The Athenians had been shut out by the war from the two previouscelebrations; and curiosity was excited throughout Greece to seewhat figure Athens would make at this great Pan-Hellenicfestival. War, it was surmised, must have exhausted herresources, and would thus prevent her from appearing withbecoming splendour. But from this reproach she was rescued bythe wealth and vanity, if not by the patriotism, of Alcibiades.By his care, the Athenian deputies exhibited the richest displayof golden ewers, censers, and other plate to be used in thepublic sacrifice and procession; whilst for the games he enteredin his own name no fewer than the unheard-of number of sevenfour-horsed chariots, of which one gained the first, and anotherthe second prize. Alcibiades was consequently twice crowned withthe olive, and twice proclaimed victor by the herald.

The growing ambition and success of Alcibiades prompted him tocarry his schemes against Sparta into the very heart ofPeloponnesus, without, however, openly violating the peace.

The Lacedaemonians now found it necessary to act with morevigour; and accordingly in B.C. 418 they assembled a very largearmy, under the command of the Spartan king, Agis. A decisivebattle was fought near Mantinea, in which Agis gained a brilliantvictory over the Argives and their allies. This battle and thatof Delium were the two most important engagements that had yetbeen fought in the Peloponnesian war. Although the Athenians hadfought on the side of the Argives at Mantinea, the peace betweenSparta and Athens continued to be nominally observed.

In B.C. 416 the Athenians attacked and conquered Melos, whichisland and Thera were the only islands in the AEgean not subjectto the Athenian supremacy. The Melians having rejected all theAthenian overtures for a voluntary submission, their capital wasblockaded by sea and land, and after a siege of some monthssurrendered. On the proposal, as it appears, of Alcibiades, allthe adult males were put to death, the women and children soldinto slavery, and the island colonized afresh by 500 Athenians.This horrible proceeding was the more indefensible, as theAthenians, having attacked the Melians in full peace, could notpretend that they were justified by the custom of war in slayingthe prisoners. It was the crowning act of insolence and crueltydisplayed during their empire, which from this period beganrapidly to decline.

The event destined to produce that catastrophe--the interventionof the Athenians in the affairs of Sicily--was already inprogress. A quarrel had broken out between Egesta and Selinus,both which cities were seated near the western extremity ofSicily; and Selinus, having obtained the aid of Syracuse, waspressing very hard upon the Egestaeans. The latter appealed tothe interests of the Athenians rather than to their sympathies.They represented how great a blow it would be to Athens if theDorians became predominant in Sicily, and joined thePeloponnesian confederacy; and they undertook, if the Athenianswould send an armament to their assistance, to provide thenecessary funds for the prosecution of the war. Their mostpowerful advocate was Alcibiades, whose ambitious views are saidto have extended even to the conquest of Carthage. The quieterand more prudent Nicias and his party threw their weight into theopposite scale. But the Athenian assembly, dazzled by the ideaof so splendid an enterprise, decided on despatching a largefleet under Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus, with the design ofassisting Egesta, and of establishing the influence of Athensthroughout Sicily, by whatever means might be found practicable.

For the next three months the preparations for the undertakingwere pressed on with the greatest ardour. Young and old, richand poor, all vied with one another to obtain a share in theexpedition. Five years of comparative peace had accumulated afresh supply both of men and money; and the merchants of Athensembarked in the enterprise as in a trading expedition. It wasonly a few of the wisest heads that escaped the general fever ofexcitement, The expedition was on the point of sailing, when asudden and mysterious event converted all these exulting feelingsinto gloomy foreboding.

At every door in Athens, at the corners of streets, in the marketplace, before temples, gymnasia, and other public places, stoodHermae, or statues of the god Hermes, consisting of a bust ofthat deity surmounting a quadrangular pillar of marble about theheight of the human figure. When the Athenians rose one morningtowards the end of May, 415 B.C., it was found that all thesefigures had been mutilated during the night, and reduced byunknown hands to a shapeless mass. The act inspired political,as well as religious, alarm. It seemed to indicate a widespreadconspiracy, for so sudden and general a mutilation must have beenthe work of many hands. The sacrilege might only be apreliminary attempt of some powerful citizen to seize thedespotisn, and suspicion pointed its finger at Alcibiades.Active measures were taken and large rewards offered for thediscovery of the perpetrators. A public board was appointed toexamine witnesses, which did not, indeed, succeed in elicitingany facts bearing on the actual subject of inquiry, but whichobtained evidence respecting similar acts of impiety committed atprevious times in drunken frolics. In these Alcibiades himselfwas implicated; and though the fleet was on the very eve ofdeparture, a citizen rose in the assembly and accused Alcibiadesof having profaned the Eleusinian mysteries by giving arepresentation of them in a private house, producing in evidencethe testimony of a slave. Alcibiades denied the accusation, andimplored the people to have it investigated at once. Hisenemies, however, had sufficient influence to get the inquirypostponed till his return; thus keeping the charge hanging overhis head, and gaining time to poison the public mind against him.

The Athenian fleet, consisting of 100 triremes, and having onboard 1500 chosen Athenian hoplites, as well as auxiliaries, atlength set sail, and proceeded to Corcyra, where it was joined bythe other allies in the month of July, 415 B.C. Upon arriving atRhegium the generals received the discouraging news that Egestawas unable to contribute more than thirty talents. A council ofwar was now held; and it was finally resolved to gain as manyallies as they could among the Greek cities in Sicily, and,having thus ascertained what assistance they could rely upon, toattack Syracuse and Selinus.

Naxos joined the Athenians, and shortly afterwards they obtainedpossession by surprise of the important city of Catana, which wasnow made the head-quarters of the armament. Here an unwelcomemessage greeted Alcibiades. after his departure from Athens,Thessalus, the son of Cimon, preferred an indictment against himin consequence of his profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries.The Salaminian, or state, trireme was despatched to Sicily,carrying the decree of the assembly for Alcibiades to come homeand take his trial. The commander of the Salaminia was, however,instructed not to seize his person, but to allow him to sail inhis own trireme. Alcibiades availed himself of this privilege toeffect his escape. When the ships arrived at Thurii in Italy, heabsconded, and contrived to elude the search that was made afterhim, Nevertheless, though absent, he was arraigned at Athens, andcondemned to death; his property was confiscated; and theEumolpidae, who presided ever the celebration of the Eleusinianmysteries, pronounced upon him the curses of the gods. Onhearing of his sentence Alcibiades is said to have exclaimed, "Iwill show them that I am still alive."

Three months had now been frittered away in Sicily, during whichthe Athenians had done little or nothing, if we except theacquisition of Naxos and Catana. Nicias now resolved to make anattempt upon Syracuse. By a false message that the Catanaeanswere ready to assist in expelling the Athenians, he induced theSyracusans to proceed thither in great force, and he availedhimself of their absence to sail with his whole fleet into theGreat Harbour of Syracuse, where he landed near the mouth of theAnapus. The Syracusans, when they found that they had beendeceived at Catana, marched back and offered Nicias battle in hisnew position. The latter accepted it, and gained the victory;after which he retired to Catana, and subsequently to Naxos intowinter quarters.

The Syracusans employed the winter in preparations for defence.They also despatched envoys to Corinth and Sparta to solicitassistance, in the latter of which towns they found an unexpectedadvocate. Alcibiades, having crossed from Thurii to Cyllene inPeloponnesus, received a special invitation to proceed to Sparta.Here he revealed all the plans of Athens, and exhorted theLacedaemonians to frustrate them. For this purpose he advisedthem to send an army into Sicily, under the command of a Spartangeneral, and, by way of causing a diversion, to establish afortified post at Decelea in the Attic territory. The Spartansfell in with these views, and resolved to send a force to theassistance of Syracuse in the spring, under the command ofGylippus.

Nicias, having received reinforcements from Athens, recommencedhostilities as soon as the season allowed of it, and resolved onbesieging Syracuse. That town consisted of two parts--the innerand the outer city. The former of these--the original settlementwas comprised in the island of Ortygia; the latter afterwardsknown by the name of Achradina, covered the high ground of thepeninsula north of Ortygia, and was completely separate from theinner city. The island of Ortygia, to which the modern city isnow confined, is of an oblong shape, about two miles incircumference, lying between the Great Harbour on the west, andthe Little Harbour on the east, and separated from the mainlandby a narrow channel. The Great Harbour is a splendid bay, aboutfive miles in circumference, and the Little Harbour was spaciousenough to receive a large fleet of ships of war. The outer citywas surrounded on the north and east by the sea and by sea-wallswhich rendered an assault on that side almost impracticable. Onthe land side it was defended by a wall, and partly also by thenature of the ground, which in some part was very steep. Westand north-west of the wall of the outer city stood twounfortified suburbs, which were at a later time included withinthe walls of Syracuse under the names of Tyche and Neapolis.Between these two suburbs the ground rose in a gentle acclivityto the summit of the ranges of hills called Epipolae.

It was from the high ground of Epipolae that Syracuse was mostexposed to attack. Nicias landed at Leon, a place upon the bayof Thapsus, at the distance of only six or seven stadia fromEpipolae, took possession of Epipolae, and erected on the summita fort called Labdalum. Then coming farther down the hilltowards Syracuse, he built another fort of a circular form and ofconsiderable size at a place called Syke. From the latter pointhe commenced his line of circumvallation, one wall extendingsouthwards from Syke to the Great Harbour, and the other wallrunning northwards to the outer sea. The Athenians succeeded incompleting the circumvallation towards the south, but in one oftheir many engagements with the Syracusans they lost the gallantLamachus. At the same time, the Athenian fleet entered the GreatHarbour, where it was henceforth permanently established. Thenorthern wall was never completed, and through the passage thusleft open the besieged continued to obtain provisions. Nicias,who, by the death of Lamachus, had become sole commander, seemednow on the point of succeeding. The Syracusans were so sensibleof their inferiority in the field that they no longer ventured toshow themselves outside the walls. They began to contemplatesurrender, and even sent messages to Nicias to treat of theterms. This caused the Athenian commander to indulge in a falseconfidence of success, and consequent apathy; and the army havinglost the active and energetic Lamachus, operations were no longercarried on with the requisite activity.

It was in this state of affairs that the Spartan commander,Gylippus, passed over into Italy with a little squadron of fourships, with the view merely of preserving the Greek cities inthat country, supposing that Syracuse, and, with her, the otherGreek cities in Sicily, were irretrievably lost. At Tarentum helearned to his great surprise and satisfaction that the Athenianwall of circumvallation at Syracuse had not yet been completed onthe northern side. He now sailed through the straits of Messana,which were left completely unguarded, and arrived safely atHimera on the north coast of Sicily. Here he announced himselfas the forerunner of larger succours, and began to levy an armywhich the magic of the Spartan name soon enabled him to effect;and in a few days he was in a condition to march towards Syracusewith about 3000 men. The Syracusans now dismissed all thoughtsof surrender, and went out boldly to meet Gylippus, who marchedinto Syracuse over the heights of Epipolae, which the supinenessof Nicias had left unguarded. Upon arriving in the city,Gylippus sent a message to the Athenians allowing them a fivedays' truce to collect their effects and evacuate the island.Nicias returned no answer to this insulting proposal; but theoperations of Gylippus soon showed that the tide of affairs wasreally turned. His first exploit was to capture the Athenianfort at Labdalum, which made him master of Epipolae. He nextcommenced constructing a counter-wall to intersect the Athenianlines on the northern side. This turn of affairs induced thoseSicilian cities which had hitherto hesitated to embrace the sideof Syracuse. Gylippus was also reinforced by the arrival ofthirty triremes from Corinth, Leucas, and Ambracia. Nicias nowfelt that the attempt to blockade Syracuse with his present forcewas hopeless. He therefore resolved to occupy the headland ofPlemmyrium, the southernmost point of the entrance to the GreatHarbour, which would be a convenient station for watching theenemy, as well as for facilitating the introduction of supplies.Here he accordingly erected three forts and formed a navalstation. Some slight affairs occurred in which the balance ofadvantage was in favour of the Syracusans. By their change ofstation the Athenians were now a besieged rather than a besiegingforce. Their triremes were becoming leaky, and their soldiersand sailors were constantly deserting. Nicias himself had falleninto a bad state of health; and in this discouraging posture ofaffairs he wrote to Athens requesting to he recalled, andinsisting strongly on the necessity of sending reinforcements.

The Athenians refused to recall Nicias, but they determined onsending a large reinforcement to Sicily, under the joint commandof Demosthenes and Eurymedon. The news of these fresh andextensive preparations incited the Lacedaemonians to morevigorous action. The peace, if such it can be called, was nowopenly broken; and in the spring of 413 B.C. the Lacedaemonians,under King Agis, invaded Attica itself, and, following the adviceof Alcibiades, established themselves permanently at Decelia, aplace situated on the ridge of Mount Parnes about 14 miles northof Athens, and commanding the Athenian plain. The city was thusplaced in a state of siege. Scarcity began to be felt within thewalls; the revenues were falling off, whilst on the other handexpenses were increasing.

Meanwhile in Sicily the Syracusans had gained such confidencethat they even ventured on a naval engagement with the Athenians.In the first battle the Athenians were victorious, but the secondbattle, which lasted two days, ended in their defeat. They werenow obliged to haul up their ships in the innermost part of theGreat Harbour, under the lines of their fortified camp. A stillmore serious disaster than the loss of the battle was the loss oftheir naval reputation. It was evident that the Athenians hadceased to be invincible on the sea; and the Syracusans no longerdespaired of overcoming them on their own element.

Such was the state of affairs when, to the astonishment of theSyracusans, a fresh Athenian fleet of 75 triremes, underDemosthenes and Eurymedon, entered the Great Harbour with all thepomp and circumstance of war. It had on board a force of 5000hoplites, of whom about a quarter were Athenians, and a greatnumber of light-armed troops. The active and enterprisingcharacter of Demosthenes led him to adopt more vigorous measuresthan those which had been hitherto pursued. He saw at once thatwhilst Epipolae remained in the possession of the Syracusansthere was no hope of taking their city, and he therefore directedall his efforts to the recapture of that position. But hisattempts were unavailing. He was defeated not only in an openassault upon the Syracusan wall, but in a nocturnal attempt tocarry it by surprise. These reverses were aggravated by thebreaking out of sickness among the troops. Demosthenes nowproposed to return home and assist in expelling theLacedaemonians from Attica, instead of pursuing an enterprisewhich seemed to be hopeless. But Nicias, who feared to return toAthens with the stigma of failure, refused to give his consent tothis step. Demosthenes then urged Nicias at least to sailimmediately out of the Great Harbour, and take up their positioneither at Thapsus or Catana, where they could obtain abundantsupplies of provisions, and would have an open sea for themanoeuvres of their fleet. But even to this proposal Niciaswould not consent; and the army and navy remained in their formerposition. Soon afterwards, however, Gylippus received such largereinforcements, that Nicias found it necessary to adopt theadvice of his colleague. Preparations were secretly made fortheir departure, the enemy appear to have had no suspicion oftheir intention and they were on the point of quitting their ill-fated quarters on the following morning, when on the very nightbefore (27 Aug. 413 B.C.) an eclipse of the moon took place. Thesoothsayers who were consulted said that the army must waitthrice nine days, a full circle of the moon, before it could quitits present position; and the devout and superstitious Niciasforthwith resolved to abide by this decision.

Meanwhile the intention of the Athenians became known to theSyracusans, who determined to strike a blow before their enemyescaped. They accordingly attacked the Athenian station both bysea and land. On land the attack of Gylippus was repulsed; butat sea the Athenian fleet was completely defeated, and Eurymedon,who commanded the right division, was slain The spirits of theSymcusans rose with their victories; and though they wouldformerly have been content with the mere retreat of theAthenians, they now resolved on effecting their utterdestruction. With this view they blocked up the entrance of theGreat Harbour with a line of vessels moored across it. All hopeseemed now to be cut off from the Athenians, unless they couldsucceed in forcing this line and thus effecting their escape.The Athenian fleet still numbered 110 triremes, which Niciasfurnished with grappling-irons, in order to bring the enemy toclose quarters, and then caused a large proportion of his land-force to embark.

Never perhaps was a battle fought under circumstances of suchintense interest, or witnessed by so many spectators vitallyconcerned in the result. The basin of the Great Harbour, about 5miles in circumference, in which nearly 200 ships, each withcrews of more than 200 men, were about to engage, was lined withspectators. The Syracusan fleet was the first to leave theshore. A considerable portion was detached to guard the barrierat the mouth of the harbour. Hither the first and most impetuousattack of the Athenians was directed, who sought to break throughthe narrow opening which had been left for the passage ofmerchant vessels. Their onset was repulsed, and the battle thenbecame general. The shouts of the combatants, and the crash ofthe iron heads of the vessels as they were driven together,resounded over the water, and were answered on shore by thecheers or wailings of the spectators as their friends werevictorious or vanquished. For a long time the battle wasmaintained with heroic courage and dubious result. At length, asthe Athenian vessels began to yield and make back towards theshore, a universal shriek of horror and despair arose from theAthenian army, whilst shouts of joy and victory were raised fromthe pursuing vessels, and were echoed back from the Syracusans onland. As the Athenian vessels neared the shore their crewsleaped out, and made for the camp, whilst the boldest of the landarmy rushed forward to protect the ships from being seized by theenemy. The Athenians succeeded in saving only 60 ships, or abouthalf their fleet. The Syracusan fleet, however, had been reducedto 50 ships; and on the same afternoon, Nicias and Demosthenes,as a last hope of escape, exhorted their men to make anotherattempt to break the enemy's line, and force their way out of theharbour. But the courage of the crews was so completely dampedthat they positively refused to re-embark.

The Athenian army still numbered 40,000 men; and as all chance ofescape by sea was now hopeless, it was resolved to retreat byland to some friendly city, and there defend themselves againstthe attacks of the Syracusans. As the soldiers turned to quitthat fatal encampment, the sense of their own woes was for amoment suspended by the sight of their unburied comrades, whoseemed to reproach them with the neglect of a sacred duty; butstill more by the wailings and entreaties of the wounded, whoclung around their knees, and implored not to be abandoned tocertain destruction. Amid this scene of universal woe anddejection, a fresh and unwonted spirit of energy and heroismseemed to be infused into Nicias. Though suffering under anincurable complaint, he was everywhere seen marshalling histroops and encouraging them by his exhortations. The march wasdirected towards the territory of the Sicels in the interior ofthe island. The army was formed into a hollow square with thebaggage in the middle; Nicias leading the van, and Demosthenesbringing up the rear. The road ascended by a sort of ravine overa steep hill called the Acraean cliff on which the Syracusans hadfortified themselves. After spending two days in vain attemptsto force this position, Nicias and Demosthenes resolved duringthe night to strike off to the left towards the sea. But theywere overtaken, surrounded by superior forces, and compelled tosurrender at discretion. Out of the 40,000 who started from thecamp only 10,000 at the utmost were left at the end of the sixthday's march, the rest had either deserted or been slain. Theprisoners were sent to work in the stone-quarries of Achradinaand Epipolae. Here they were crowded together without anyshelter, and with scarcely provisions enough to sustain life.The numerous bodies of those who died were left to putrify wherethey had fallen, till at length the place became such anintolerable centre of stench and infection that, at the end ofseventy days, the Syracusans, for their own comfort and safety,were obliged to remove the survivors, who were sold as slaves.Nicias and Demosthenes were condemned to death in spite of allthe efforts of Gylippus and Hermocrates to save them.

Such was the end of two of the largest and best appointedarmaments that had ever gone forth from Athens. Nicias, as wehave seen, was from the first opposed to the expedition in whichthey were employed, as pregnant with the most dangerousconsequences to Athens; and, though it must be admitted that inthis respect his views were sound, it cannot at the same time beconcealed that his own want of energy, and his incompetence as ageneral, were the chief causes of the failure of the undertaking.His mistakes involved the fall of Demosthenes, an officer of fargreater resolution and ability than himself, and who, had hiscounsels been followed, would in all probability have conductedthe enterprise to a safe termination, though there was no longerroom to hope for success.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.--THIRD PERIOD, FROM THE SICILIANEXPEDITION TO THE END OF THE WAR, B.C. 413-404.

The destruction of the Sicilian armament was a fatal blow to thepower of Athens. It is astonishing that she was able to protractthe war so long with diminished strength and resources. Hersituation inspired her enemies with new vigour; states hithertoneutral declared against her; her subject-allies prepared tothrow off the yoke; even the Persian satraps and the court ofSusa bestirred themselves against her. The first blow to herempire was struck by the wealthy and populous island of Chios.This again was the work of Alcibiades, the implacable enemy ofhis native land, at whose advice a Lacedaemonian fleet was sentto the assistance of the Chians. Their example was followed byall the other Athenian allies in Asia, with the exception ofSamos, in which the democratical party gained the upper hand. Inthe midst of this general defection the Athenians did not giveway to despair. Pericles had set apart a reserve of 1000 talentsto meet the contingency of an actual invasion. This stillremained untouched, and now by an unanimous vote the penalty ofdeath, which forbad its appropriation to any other purpose, wasabolished, and the fund applied in fitting out a fleet againstChios. Samos became the head-quarters of the fleet, and the baseof their operations during the remainder of the war.

After a time the tide of success began to turn in favour of theAthenians. They recovered Lesbos and Clazomenae, defeated theChians, and laid waste their territory. They also gained avictory over the Peloponnesians at Miletus; while thePeloponnesian fleet had lost the assistance of Tissaphernes, thePersian satrap, through the intrigues of Alcibiades. In thecourse of a few months Alcibiades had completely forfeited theconfidence of the Lacedaemonians. The Spartan king Agis, whosewife he had seduced, was his personal enemy; and after the defeatof the Peloponnesians at Miletus, Agis denounced him as atraitor, and persuaded the new Ephors to send out instructions toput him to death. Of this, however, he was informed time enoughto make his escape to Tissaphernes at Magnesia. Here heingratiated himself into the confidence of the satrap, andpersuaded him that it was not for the interest of Persia thateither of the Grecian parties should be successful, but ratherthat they should wear each other out in their mutual struggles,when Persia would in the end succeed in expelling both. Thisadvice was adopted by the satrap; and in order to carry it intoexecution, steps were taken to secure the inactivity of thePeloponnesian armament, which, if vigorously employed, waspowerful enough to put a speedy end to the war. In order tosecure his return to Athens, Alcibiades now endeavoured topersuade Tissaphernes that it was more for the Persian interestto conclude a league with Athens than with Sparta; but the onlypart of his advice which the satrap seems to have sincerelyadopted was that of playing off one party against the other.About this, however, Alcibiades did not at all concern himself.It was enough for his views, which had merely the selfish aim ofhis own restoration to Athens, if he could make it appear that hepossessed sufficient influence with Tissaphernes to procure hisassistance for the Athenians. He therefore began to communicatewith the Athenian generals at Samos, and held out the hope of aPersian alliance as the price of his restoration to his country.But as he both hated and feared the Athenian democracy, hecoupled his offer with the condition that a revolution should beeffected at Athens, and an oligarchy established. The Atheniangenerals greedily caught at the proposal; and though the greatmass of the soldiery were violently opposed to it, they weresilenced, if not satisfied, when told that Athens could be savedonly by means of Persia. The oligarchical conspirators formedthemselves into a confederacy, and Pisander was sent to Athens tolay the proposal before the Athenian assembly. It met, as itmight be supposed, with the most determined opposition. Thesingle but unanswerable reply of Pisander was, the necessities ofthe republic; and at length a reluctant vote for a change ofconstitution was extorted from the people. Pisander and tenothers were despatched to treat with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes.

Upon their arrival in Ionia they informed Alcibiades thatmeasures had been taken for establishing an oligarchical form ofgovernment at Athens, and required him to fulfil his part of theengagement by procuring the aid and alliance of Persia. ButAlcibiades knew that he had undertaken what he could not perform,and he now resolved to escape from the dilemma by one of hishabitual artifices. He received the Athenian deputation in thepresence of Tissaphernes himself, and made such extravagantdemands on behalf of the satrap that Pisander and his colleaguesindignantly broke off the conference.

Notwithstanding the conduct of Alcibiades the oligarchicalconspirators proceeded with the revolution at Athens, in whichthey had gone too far to recede. Pisander, with five of theenvoys, returned to Athens to complete the work they had begun.

Pisander proposed in the assembly, and carried a resolution, thata committee of ten should be appointed to prepare a newconstitution, which was to be submitted to the approbation of thepeople. But when the day appointed for that purpose arrived, theassembly was not convened in the Pnyx, but in the temple ofPoseidon at Colonus, a village upwards of a mile from Athens.Here the conspirators could plant their own partisans, and wereless liable to be overawed by superior numbers. Pisanderobtained the assent of the meeting to the following revolutionarychanges:--1. The abolition of all the existing magistracies; 2.The cessation of all payments for the discharge of civilfunctions; 3. The appointment of a committee of five persons,who were to name ninety-five more; each of the hundred thusconstituted to choose three persons; the body of Four Hundredthus formed to be an irresponsible government, holding itssittings in the senate house. The four hundred were to convene aselect body of five thousand citizens whenever they thoughtproper. Nobody knew who these five thousand were, but theyanswered two purposes, namely, to give an air of greaterpopularity to the government, as well as to overawe the people byan exaggerated notion of its strength.

Thus perished the Athenian democracy, after an existence ofnearly a century since its establishment by Clisthenes Therevolution was begun from despair of the foreign relations ofAthens, and from the hope of assistance from Persia; but it wascarried out through the machinations of the conspirators afterthat delusion had ceased.

At Samos the Athenian army refused to recognise the newgovernment. At the instance of Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus ameeting was called in which the soldiers pledged themselves tomaintain the democracy, to continue the war against Peloponnesus,and to put down the usurpers at Athens. The soldiers, layingaside for a while their military character, constitutedthemselves into an assembly of the people, deposed several oftheir officers, and appointed others whom they could bettertrust. Thrasybulus proposed the recall of Alcibiades,notwithstanding his connection with the oligarchical conspiracy,because it was believed that he was now able and willing to aidthe democratic cause with the gold and forces of Persia. Afterconsiderable opposition the proposal was agreed to; Alcibiadeswas brought to Samos and introduced to the assembly, where by hismagnificent promises, and extravagant boasts respecting hisinfluence with Tissaphernes, he once more succeeded in deceivingthe Athenians. The accomplished traitor was elected one of thegenerals, and, in pursuance of his artful policy, began to passbackwards and forwards between Samos and Magnesia, with the viewof inspiring both the satrap and the Athenians with a reciprocalidea of his influence with either, and of instilling distrust ofTissaphernes into the minds of the Peloponnesians.

At the first news of the re-establishment of democracy at Samos,distrust and discord had broken out among the Four Hundred.Antiphon and Phrynichus, at the head of the extreme section ofthe oligarchical party, were for admitting a Lacedaemoniangarrison. But others, discontented with their share of power,began to affect more popular sentiments, among whom wereTheramenes and Aristocrates. Meantime Euboea, supported by theLacedaemonians and Boeotians, revolted from Athens. The loss ofthis island seemed a death-blow. The Lacedaemonians might noweasily blockade the ports of Athens and starve her intosurrender; whilst the partisans of the Four Hundred woulddoubtless co-operate with the enemy. But from this fate theywere saved by the characteristic slowness of the Lacedaemonians,who confined themselves to securing the conquest of Euboea. Thusleft unmolested, the Athenians convened an assembly in the Pnyx.Votes were passed for deposing the Four Hundred, and placing thegovernment in the hands of the 5000, of whom every citizen whocould furnish a panoply might be a member. In short, the oldconstitution was restored, except that the franchise wasrestricted to 5000 citizens, and payment for the discharge ofcivil functions abolished. In subsequent assemblies, theArchons, the Senate, and other institutions were revived; and avote was passed to recall Alcibiades and some of his friends.The number of the 5000 was never exactly observed, and was soonenlarged into universal citizenship. Thus the Four Hundred wereoverthrown after a reign of four months, B.C. 411.

While these things were going on at Athens, the war wasprosecuted with vigour on the coast of Asia Minor. Mindarus, whonow commanded the Peloponnesian fleet, disgusted at length by theoften-broken promises of Tissaphernes, and the scanty andirregular pay which he furnished, set sail from Miletus andproceeded to the Hellespont, with the intention of assisting thesatrap Pharnabazus, and of effecting, if possible, the revolt ofthe Athenian dependencies in that quarter. Hither he was pursuedby the Athenian fleet under Thrasyllus. In a few days anengagement ensued (in August, 411 B.C.), in the famous straitsbetween Sestos and Abydos, in which the Athenians, though with asmaller force, gained the victory and erected a trophy on thepromontory of Cynossema, near the tomb and chapel of the Trojanqueen Hecuba. The Athenians followed up their victory by thereduction of Cyzicus, which had revolted from them. A month ortwo afterwards another obstinate engagement took place betweenthe Peloponnesian and Athenian fleets ness Abydos, which lasted awhole day, and was at length decided in favour of the Atheniansby the arrival of Alcibiades with his squadron of eighteen shipsfrom Samos.

Shortly after the battle Tissaphernes arrived at the Hellespontwith the view of conciliating the offended Peloponnesians. Hewas not only jealous of the assistance which the latter were nowrendering to Pharnabarzus, but it is also evident that histemporizing policy had displeased the Persian court. Thisappears from his conduct on the present occasion, as well as fromthe subsequent appointment of Cyrus to the supreme command on theAsiatic coast as we shall presently have to relate. WhenAlcibiades, who imagined that Tissaphernes was still favourableto the Athenian cause waited on him with the customary presents,he was arrested by order of the satrap, and sent in custody toSardis. At the end of a month, however, he contrived to escapeto Clazomenae, and again joined the Athenian fleet early in thespring of 410 B.C. Mindaras, with the assistance of Pharnabazason the land side, was now engaged in the siege of Cyzicus, whichthe Athenian admirals determined to relieve. Here a battleensued, in which Mindarus was slain, the Lacedaemonians andPersians routed, and almost the whole Peloponnesian fleetcaptured. The severity of this blow was pictured in the laconicepistle in which Hippocrates, the second in command, [CalledEpistoteus or "Secretary" in the Lacedaemonian fleet. Thecommander of the fleet had the title of NAVARCHUS.] announced itto the Ephors: "Our good luck is gone; Mindarus is slain; themen are starving; we know not what to do."

The results of this victory were most important. Perinthus andSelymbria, as well as Cyzicus, were recovered; and the Athenians,once more masters of the Propontis, fortified the town ofChrysopolis, over against Byzantium, at the entrance of theBosporus; re-established their toll of ten per cent, on allvessels passing from the Euxine; and left a squadron to guard thestrait and collect the dues. So great was the discouragement ofthe Lacedaemonians at the loss of their fleet that the EphorEndius proceeded to Athens to treat for peace on the basis ofboth parties standing just as they were. The Athenian assemblywas at this time led by the demagogue Cleophon, a lamp-maker,known to us by the later comedies of Aristophanes. Cleophonappears to have been a man of considerable ability; but the latevictories had inspired him with too sanguine hopes and he advisedthe Athenians to reject the terms proposed by Endius. Athensthus throw away the golden opportunity of recruiting hershattered forces of which she stood so much in need; and to thisunfortunate advice must be ascribed the calamities whichsubsequently overtook her.

The possession of the Bosporus reopened to the Athenians thetrade of the Euxine. From his lofty fortress at Decelea theSpartan king Agris could descry the corn-ships from the Euxinesailing into the Harbour of the Piraeus, and felt how fruitlessit was to occupy the fields of Attica whilst such abundantsupplies of provisions were continually finding their way to thecity.

In B.C. 408 the important towns of Chalcedon, Selymbria, andByzantium fell into the hands of the Athenians, thus leaving themundisputed masters of the Propontis.

These great achievements of Alcibiades naturally paved the wayfor his return to Athens. In the spring of 407 B.C. he proceededwith the fleet to Samos, and from thence sailed to Piraeus. Hisreception was far more favourable than he had ventured toanticipate. The whole population of Athens flocked down toPiraeus to welcome him, and escorted him to the city. He seemedto be in the present juncture the only man capable of restoringthe grandeur and the empire of Athens: he was accordingly namedgeneral with unlimited powers, and a force of 100 triremes, 1500hoplites, and 150 cavalry placed at his disposal. Before hisdeparture he took an opportunity to atone for the impiety ofwhich he had been suspected. Although his armament was inperfect readiness, he delayed its sailing till after thecelebration of the Eleusinian mysteries at the beginning ofSeptember. For seven years the customary procession across theThriasian plain had been suspended, owing to the occupation ofDecelea by the enemy, which compelled the sacred troop to proceedby sea. Alcibiades now escorted them on their progress andreturn with his forces, and thus succeeded in reconciling himselfwith the offended goddesses and with their holy priests, theEumolpidae.

Meanwhile a great change had been going on in the state ofaffairs in the East. We have already seen that the Great Kingwas displeased with the vacillating policy of Tissaphernes, andhad determined to adopt more energetic measures against theAthenians. During the absence of Alcibiades, Cyrus, the youngerson of Darius, a prince of a bold and enterprising spirit, andanimated with a lively hatred of Athens, had arrived at the coastfor the purpose of carrying out the altered policy of the Persiancourt; and with that view he had been invested with the satrapiesof Lydia, the Greater Phrygia, and Cappadocia. The arrival ofCyrus opens the last phase of the Peloponnesian war. Anotherevent, in the highest degree unfavourable to the Athenian cause,was the accession of Lysander, as NAVARCHUS, to the command ofthe Peloponnesian fleet. Lysander was the third of theremarkable men whom Sparta produced during the war. In ability,energy, and success he may be compared with Brasidas andGylippus, though immeasurably inferior to the former in everymoral quality. He was born of poor parents, and was by descentone of those Lacedaemonians who could never enjoy the full rightsof Spartan citizenship. His ambition was boundless, and he waswholly unscrupulous about the means which he employed to gratifyit. In pursuit of his objects he hesitated at neither deceit,nor perjury, nor cruelty, and he is reported to have laid it downas one of his maxims in life to avail himself of the fox's skinwhere the lion's failed.

Lysander had taken up his station at Ephesus, with theLacedaemonian fleet of 70 triremes; and when Cyrus arrived atSardis, in the spring of 407 B.C., he hastened to pay his courtto the young prince, and was received with every mark of favour.A vigrorous line of action was resolved on. Cyrus at onceoffered 500 talents, and affirmed that, if more were needed, hewas prepared even to coin into money the very throne of gold andsilver on which he sat. In a banquet which ensued Cyrus drank tothe health of Lysander, and desired him to name any wish which hecould gratify. Lysander immediately requested an addition of anobolus to the daily pay of the seamen. Cyrus was surprised at sodisinterested a demand, and from that day conceived a high degreeof respect and confidence for the Spartan commander. Lysander onhis return to Ephesus employed himself in refitting his fleet,and in organising clubs in the Spartan interest in the cities ofAsia.

Alcibiades set sail from Athens in September. Being ill providedwith funds for carrying on the war, he was driven to makepredatory excursions for the purpose of raising money. Duringhis absence he intrusted the bulk of the fleet at Samos to hispilot, Antiochus, with strict injunctions not to venture on anaction. Notwithstanding these orders, however, Antiochus sailedout and brought the Peloponnesian fleet to an engagement offNotium, in which the Athenians were defeated with the loss of 15ships, and Antiochus himself was slain. Among the Athenianarmament itself great dissatisfaction was growing up againstAlcibiades. Though at the head of a splendid force, he had inthree months time accomplished literally nothing. Hisdebaucheries and dissolute conduct on shore were charged againsthim, as well as his selecting for confidential posts not the menbest fitted for them, but those who, like Antiochus were the booncompanions and the chosen associates of his revels. Theseaccusations forwarded to Athens, and fomented by his secretenemies, soon produced an entire revulsion in the public feelingtowards Alcibiades. The Athenians voted that he should bedismissed from his command, and they appointed in his place tennew generals, with Conon at their head.

The year of Lysander's command expired about the same time as theappointment of Conon to the Athenian fleet. Through theintrigues of Lysander, his successor Callicratidas was receivedwith dissatisfaction both by the Lacedaemonian seamen and byCyrus. Loud complaints were raised of the impolicy of an annualchange of commanders. Lysander threw all sorts of difficultiesinto the way of his successor, to whom he handed over an emptychest, having first repaid to Cyrus all the money in hispossession under the pretence that it was a private loan. Thestraightforward conduct of Callicratidas, however, who summonedthe Lacedaemonian commanders, and after a dignified remonstrance,plainly put the question whether he should return home or remain,silenced all opposition. But he was sorely embarrassed forfunds. Cyrus treated him with haughtiness; and when he waited onthat prince at Sardis, he was dismissed not only without money,but even without an audience. Callicratidas, however, had toomuch energy to be daunted by such obstacles. Sailing with hisfleet from Ephesus to Miletus, he laid before the assembly ofthat city, in a spirited address, all the ill they had sufferedat the hands of the Persians, and exhorted them to bestirthemselves and dispense with the Persian alliance. He succeededin persuading the Milesians to make him a large grant of money,whilst the leading men even came forward with privatesubscriptions. By means of this assistance he was enabled to add50 triremes to the 90 delivered to him by Lysander; and theChians further provided him with ten days' pay for the seamen.

The fleet of Callicratidas was now double that of Conon. Thelatter was compelled to run before the superior force ofCallicratidas. Both fleets entered the harbour of Mytilene atthe same time, where a battle ensued in which Conon lost 30ships, but he saved the remaining 40 by hauling them ashore underthe walls of the town. Callicratidas then blockaded Mytileneboth by sea and land; but Conon contrived to despatch a triremeto Athens with the news of his desperate position.

As soon as the Athenians received intelligence of the blockade ofMytilene; vast efforts were made for its relief; and we learnwith surprise that in thirty days a fleet of 110 triremes wasequipped and despatched from Piraeus. The armament assembled atSamos, where it was reinforced by scattered Athenian ships, andby contingents from the allies, to the extent of 40 vessels. Thewhole fleet of 150 sail then proceeded to the small islands ofArginusae, near the coast of Asia, and facing Malea, the south-eastern cape of Lesbos. Callicratidas, who went out to meetthem, took up his station at the latter point, leaving a squadronof 50 ships to maintain the blockade of Mytilene. He had thusonly 120 ships to oppose to the 150 of the Athenians, and hispilot advised him to retire before the superior force of theenemy. But Callicratidas replied that he would not disgracehimself by flight, and that if he should perish Sparta would notfeel his loss. The battle was long and obstinate. All order wasspeedily lost, and the ships fought singly with one another, Inone of these contests, Callicratidas, who stood on the prow ofhis vessel ready to board the enemy, was thrown overboard by theshock of the vessels as they met, and perished. At lengthvictory began to declare for the Athenians. The Lacedaemonians,after losing 77 vessels, retreated with the remainder to Chiosand Phocaea. The loss of the Athenians was 25 vessels.

The battle of Arginusae led to a deplorable event, which has forever sullied the pages of Athenian history. At least a dozenAthenian vessels were left floating about in a disabled conditionafter the battle; but, owing to a violent storm that ensued, noattempt was made to rescue the survivors, or to collect thebodies of the dead for burial. Eight of the ten generals weresummoned home to answer for this conduct; Conon, by his situationat Mytilene, was of course exculpated, and Archestratus had died.Six of the generals obeyed the summons, and were denounced in theAssembly by Theramenes, formerly one of the Four Hundred, forneglect of duty. The generals replied that they had commissionedTheramenes himself and Thrasybulus, each of whom commanded atrireme in the engagement, to undertake the duty, and hadassigned 48 ships to them for that purpose. This, however, wasdenied by Theramenes. There are discrepancies in the evidence,and we have no materials for deciding positively which statementwas true; but probability inclines to the side of the generals.Public feeling, however, ran very strongly against them, and wasincreased by an incident which occurred during their trial.After a day's debate the question was adjourned; and in theinterval the festival of the APATURIA was celebrated, in which,according to annual custom, the citizens met together accordingto their families and phratries. Those who had perished atArginusae were naturally missed on such an occasion; and theusually cheerful character of the festival was deformed andrendered melancholy by the relatives of the deceased appearing inblack clothes and with shaven heads. The passions of the peoplewere violently roused. At the next meeting of the Assembly,Callixenus, a senator, proposed that the people should at onceproceed to pass its verdict on the generals, though they had beenonly partially heard in their defence; and, moreover, that theyshould all be included in one sentence, though it was contrary toa rule of Attic law, known as the psephisma of Canonus, to indictcitizens otherwise than individually. The Prytanes, or senatorsof the presiding tribe, at first refused to put the question tothe Assembly in this illegal way; but their opposition was atlength overawed by clamour and violence. There was, however, onehonourable exception. The philosopher Socrates, who was one ofthe Prytanes, refused to withdraw his protest. But hisopposition was disregarded, and the proposal of Callixenus wascarried, The generals were condemned, delivered over to theEleven for execution, and compelled to drink the fatal hemlock.Among them was Pericles, the son of the celebrated statesman.

In the following year (B.C. 405), through the influence of Cyrusand the other allies of Sparta, Lysander again obtained thecommand of the Peloponnesian fleet, though nominally under Aracusas admiral; since it was contrary to Spartan usage that the sameman should be twice NAVARCHUS. His return to power was marked bymore vigorous measures. He sailed to the Hellespont, and laidsiege to Lampsacus. The Athenian fleet arrived too late to savethe town, but they proceeded up the strait and took post atAEgospotami, or the "Goat's River;" a place which had nothing torecommend it, except its vicinity to Lampsacus, from which it wasseparated by a channel somewhat less than two miles broad. Itwas a mere desolate beach, without houses or inhabitants, so thatall the supplies had to be fetched from Sestos, or from thesurrounding country, and the seamen were compelled to leave theirships in order to obtain their meals. Under these circumstancesthe Athenians were very desirous of bringing Lysander to anengagement. But the Spartan commander, who was in a strongposition, and abundantly furnished with provisions, was in nohurry to run any risks. In vain did the Athenians sail overseveral days in succession to offer him battle; they always foundhis ships ready manned, and drawn up in too strong a position towarrant an attack; nor could they by all their manoeuvres succeedin enticing him out to combat. This cowardice, as they deemedit, on the part of the Lacedaemonians, begat a correspondingnegligence on theirs; discipline was neglected and the menallowed to straggle almost at will. It was in vain thatAlcibiades, who since his dismissal resided in a fortress in thatneighbourhood, remonstrated with the Athenian generals on theexposed nature of the station they had chosen, and advised themto proceed to Sestos. His counsels were received with taunts andinsults. At length, on the fifth day, Lysander, having watchedan opportunity when the Athenian seamen had gone on shore andwere dispersed over the country, rowed swiftly across the straitwith all his ships. He found the Athenian fleet, with theexception of 10 or 12 vessels, totally unprepared, and hecaptured nearly the whole of it, without having occasion tostrike a single blow. Of the 180 ships which composed the fleet,only the trireme of Conon himself, the Paralus, and 8 or 10 othervessels succeeded in escaping. Conon was afraid to return toAthens after so signal a disaster, and took refuge with Evagoras,prince of Salamis in Cyprus.

By this momentous victory (September, B.C. 405) the Peloponnesianwar was virtually brought to an end. Lysander, secure of an easytriumph, was in no haste to gather it by force. The command ofthe Euxine enabled him to control the supplies of Athens; andsooner or later, a few weeks of famine must decide her fall. Henow sailed forth to take possession of the Athenian towns, whichfell one after another into his power as soon as he appearedbefore them. About November he arrived at AEgina, with anoverwhelming fleet of 150 triremes, and proceeded to devastateSalamis and blockade Piraeus. At the same time the wholePeloponnesian army was marched into Attica and encamped in theprecincts of the Academus, at the very gates of Athens. Faminesoon began to be felt within the walls, and at the end of threemonths it became so dreadful, that the Athenians saw themselvescompelled to submit to the terms of the conqueror. These termswere: That the long walls and the fortifications of Piraeusshould be demolished; that the Athenians should give up all theirforeign possessions, and confine themselves to their ownterritory; that they should surrender all their ships of war;that they should readmit all their exiles; and that they shouldbecome allies of Sparta.

It was about the middle or end of March, B.C. 404, that Lysandersailed into Piraeus, and took formal possession of Athens; thewar, in singular conformity with the prophecies current at thebeginning of it, having lasted for a period of thrice nine, or 27years. The insolence of the victors added another blow to thefeelings of the conquered. The work of destruction, at whichLysander presided, was converted into a sort of festival. Femaleflute-players and wreathed dancers inaugurated the demolition ofthe strong and proud bulwarks of Athens; and as the massive wallsfell piece by piece exclamations arose from the ranks of thePeloponnesians that freedom had at length begun to dawn uponGreece.

CHAPTER XIV

THE THIRTY TYRANTS, AND THE DEATH OF SOCRATES, B.C. 404-399.

The fall of Athens brought back a host of exiles, all of them theenemies of her democratical constitution. Of these these mostdistinguished was Critias, a man of wealth and family, the uncleof Plato, and once the intimate friend of Socrates, distinguishedboth for his literary and political talents, but of unmeasuredambition and unscrupulous conscience. Critias and his companionssoon found a party with which they could co-operate; andsupported by Lysander they proposed in the assembly that acommittee of thirty should be named to draw up laws for thefuture government of the city, and to undertake its temporaryadministration. Among the most prominent of the thirty nameswere those of Critias and Theramenes. The proposal was of coursecarried. Lysander himself addressed the Assembly, andcontemptuously told them that they had better take thought fortheir personal safety, which now lay at his mercy, than for theirpolitical constitution. The committee thus appointed soonobtained the title of the Thirty Tyrants, the name by which theyhave become known in all subsequent time. After naming anentirely new Senate, and appointing fresh magistrates, theyproceeded to exterminate their most obnoxious opponents. ButCritias, and the more violent party among them, still called formore blood; and with the view of obtaining it, procured a Spartangarrison, under the harmost Callibius, to be installed in theAcropolis. Besides this force, they had an organized band ofassassins at their disposal. Blood now flowed on all sides.Many of the leading men of Athens fell, others took to flight.

Thus the reign of terror was completely established. In thebosom of the Thirty, however, there was a party, headed byTheramenes, who disapproved of these proceedings. But hismoderation cost him his life. One day as he entered the Senate-house, Critias rose and denounced him as a public enemy, andordered him to be carried off to instant death. Upon hearingthese words Theramenes sprang for refuge to the altar in theSenate-house; but he was dragged away by Satyrus, the cruel andunscrupulous head of the "Eleven," a body of officers who carriedinto execution the penal sentence of the law. Being conveyed toprison, he was compelled to drink the fatal hemlock. Theconstancy of his end might have adorned a better life afterswallowing the draught, he jerked on the floor a drop whichremained in the cup, according to the custom of the game calledCOTTABOS, exclaiming, "This to the health of the GENTLE Critias!"

Alcibiades had been included by the Thirty in the list of exiles;but the fate which now overtook him seems to have sprung from thefears of the Lacedaemonians, or perhaps from the personal hatredof Agis. After the battle of AEgospotami, Pharnabazus permittedthe Athenian exile to live in Phrygia, and assigned him a revenuefor his maintenance. But a despatch came out from Sparta, toLysander, directing that Alcibiades should be put to death.Lysander communicated the order to Pharnabazus, who arranged forcarrying it into execution. The house of Alcibiades wassurrounded with a band of assassins, and set on fire. He rushedout with drawn sword upon his assailants, who shrank from theattack, but who slew him from a distance with their javelins andarrows. Timandra, a female with whom he lived, performed towardshis body the last offices of duty and affection. Thus perishedmiserably, in the vigour of his age, one of the most remarkable,but not one of the greatest, characters in Grecian history. Withqualities which, properly applied, might have rendered him thegreatest benefactor of Athens, he contrived to attain theinfamous distinction of being that citizen who had inflicted uponher the most signal amount of damage.

Meantime an altered state of feeling was springing up in Greece.Athens had ceased to be an object of fear or jealousy, and thosefeelings began now to be directed towards Sparta. Lysander hadrisen to a height of unparalleled power. He was in a manneridolized. Poets showered their praises on him, and even altarswere raised in his honour by the Asiatic Greeks. In the name ofSparta he exercised almost uncontrolled authority in the citieshe had reduced, including Athens itself. But it was soondiscovered that, instead of the freedom promised by the Spartans,only another empire had been established, whilst Lysander waseven meditating to extort from the subject cities a yearlytribute of one thousand talents. And all these oppressions wererendered still more intolerable by the overweening pride andharshness of Lysander's demeanour.

Even in Sparta itself the conduct of Lysander was beginning toinspire disgust and jealousy. Pausanias, son of Plistoanax, whowas now king with Agis, as well as the new Ephors appointed inSeptember, B.C. 404, disapproved of his proceedings. The Thebansand Corinthians themselves were beginning to sympathise withAthens, and to regard the Thirty as mere instruments forsupporting the Spartan dominion; whilst Sparta in her turn lookedupon them as the tools of Lysander's ambition. Many of theAthenian exiles had found refuge in Boeotia: and one of themThrasybulus, with the aid of Ismenias and other Theban citizens,starting from Thebes at the head of a small band of exiles,seized the fortress of Phyle in the passes of Mount Parnes and onthe direct road to Athens. The Thirty marched out to attackThrasybulus, at the head of the Lacedaemonian garrison and astrong Athenian force. But their attack was repulsed withconsiderable loss.

Shortly afterwards Thrasybulus marched from Phyle to Piraeuswhich was now an open town, and seized upon it withoutopposition. When the whole force of the Thirty, including theLacedaemonians, marched on the following day to attack him, heretired to the hill of Munychia, the citadel of Piraeus, the onlyapproach to which was by a steep ascent. Here he drew up hishoplites in files of ten deep, posting behind them his slingersand dartmen. He exhorted his men to stand patiently till theenemy came within reach of the missiles. At the first dischargethe assailing column seemed to waver; and Thrasybulus, takingadvantage of their confusion, charged down the hill, andcompletely routed them, killing seventy, among whom was Critiashimself. The loss of their leader had thrown the majority intothe hands of the party formerly led by Theramenes, who resolvedto depose the Thirty and constitute a new oligarchy of Ten. Someof the Thirty were re-elected into this body; but the moreviolent colleagues of Critias were deposed and retired for safetyto Eleusis. The new government of the Ten sent to Sparta tosolicit further aid; and a similar application was made at thesame time from the section of the Thirty at Eleusis. Theirrequest was complied with; and Lysander once more entered Athensat the head of a Lacedaemonian force. Fortunately, however, thejealousy of the Lacedaemonians towards Lysander led them at thiscritical juncture to supersede him in the command. KingPausanias was appointed to conduct an army into Attica, and whenhe encamped in the Academus he was joined by Lysander and hisforces. It was known at Athens that the views of Pausanias wereunfavourable to the proceedings of Lysander; and the presence ofthe Spartan king elicited a vehement reaction against theoligarchy, which fear had hitherto suppressed. All parties sentenvoys to Sparta. The Ephors and the Lacedaemonian Assemblyreferred the question to a committee of fifteen, of whomPausanias was one. The decision of this board was: That theexiles in Piraeus should be readmitted to Athens, and that thereshould be an amnesty for all that had passed, except as regardedthe Thirty and the Ten.

When these terms were settled and sworn to, the Peloponnesiansquitted Attica; and Thrasybulus and the exiles, marching insolemn procession from Piraeus to Athens, ascended to theAcropolis and offered up a solemn sacrifice and thanksgiving. Anassembly of the people was then held, and after Thrasybulus hadaddressed an animated reproof to the oligarchical party, thedemocracy was unanimously restored. This important counter-revolution took place in the spring of 403 B.C. The archons, thesenate of 500, the public assembly, and the dicasteries seem tohave been reconstituted in the same form as before the capture ofthe city.

Thus was terminated, after a sway of eight months, the despotismof the Thirty. The year which contained their rule was not namedafter the archon, but was termed "the year of anarchy." Thefirst archon drawn after their fall was Euclides, who gave hisname to a year ever afterwards memorable among the Athenians.

For the next few years the only memorable event in the history ofAthens is the death of Socrates. This celebrated philosopher wasborn in the year 468 B.C., in the immediate neighbourhood ofAthens. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor, and Socrateswas brought up to, and for some time practised, the sameprofession. He was married to Xanthippe, by whom he had threesons; but her bad temper has rendered her name proverbial for aconjugal scold. His physical constitution was healthy, robust,and wonderfully enduring. Indifferent alike to heat and cold thesame scanty and homely clothing sufficed him both in summer andwinter; and even in the campaign of Potidaea, amidst the snows ofa Thracian winter, he went barefooted. But though thus giftedwith strength of body and of mind, he was far from being endowedwith personal beauty. His thick lips, flat nose, and prominenteyes, gave him the appearance of a Silenus, or satyr. He servedwith credit as an hoplite at Potidaea (B.C. 432), Delium (B.C.424), and Amphipolis (B.C. 422); but it was not till late inlife, in the year 406 B.C., that he filled any political office.He was one of the Prytanes when, after the battle of Arginusae,Callixenus submitted his proposition respecting the six generalsto the public Assembly, and his refusal on that occasion to putan unconstitutional question to the vote has been alreadyrecorded. He had a strong persuasion that he was intrusted witha divine mission, and he believed himself to be attended by adaemon, or genius, whose admonitions he frequently heard, not,however, in the way of excitement, but of restraint. He neverWROTE anything, but he made oral instruction the great businessof his life. Early in the morning he frequented the publicwalks, the gymnasia, and the schools; whence he adjourned to themarket-place at its most crowded hours, and thus spent the wholeday in conversing with young and old, rich and poor,--with all inshort who felt any desire for his instructions.

That a reformer and destroyer, like Socrates, of ancientprejudices and fallacies which passed current under the name ofwisdom should have raised up a host of enemies is only what mightbe expected; but in his case this feeling was increased by themanner in which he fulfilled his mission. The oracle of Delphi,in response to a question put by his friend Chaerephon, hadaffirmed that no man was wiser than Socrates. No one was moreperplexed at this declaration than Socrates himself, since he wasconscious of possessing no wisdom at all. However, he determinedto test the accuracy of the priestess, for, though he had littlewisdom, others might have still less. He therefore selected aneminent politician who enjoyed a high reputation for wisdom, andsoon elicited by his scrutinising method of cross-examination,that this statesman's reputed wisdom was no wisdom at all. Butof this he could not convince the subject of his examination;whence Socrates concluded that he was wiser than this politician,inasmuch as he was conscious of his own ignorance, and thereforeexempt from the error of believing himself wise when in realityhe was not so. The same experiment was tried with the sameresult on various classes of men; on poets, mechanics, andespecially on the rhetors and sophists, the chief of all thepretenders to wisdom.

The first indication of the unpopularity which he had incurred isthe attack made upon him by Aristophanes in the 'Clouds' in theyear 423 B.C. That attack, however, seems to have evaporatedwith the laugh, and for many years Socrates continued histeaching without molestation. It was not till B.C. 399 that theindictment was preferred against him which cost him his life. Inthat year, Meletus, a leather-seller, seconded by Anytus, a poet,and Lycon, a rhetor, accused him of impiety in not worshippingthe gods of the city, and in introducing new deities, and also ofbeing a corrupter of youth. With respect to the latter charge,his former intimacy with Alcibiades and Critias may have, weighedagainst him. Socrates made no preparations for his defence, andseems, indeed, not to have desired an acquittal. But although headdressed the dicasts in a bold uncompromising tone, he wascondemned only by a small majority of five or six in a courtcomposed of between five and six hundred dicasts. After theverdict was pronounced, he was entitled, according to thepractice of the Athenian courts, to make some counter-propositionin place of the penalty of death, which the accusers haddemanded, and if he had done so with any show of submission it isprobable that the sentence would have been mitigated. But histone after the verdict was higher than before. Instead of afine, he asserted that he ought to be maintained in the Prytaneumat the public expense, as a public benefactor. This seems tohave enraged the dicasts and he was condemned to death.

It happened that the vessel which proceeded to Delos on theannual deputation to the festival had sailed the day before hiscondemnation; and during its absence it was unlawful to put anyone to death. Socrates was thus kept in prison during thirtydays, till the return of the vessel. He spent the interval inphilosophical conversations with his friends. Crito, one ofthese, arranged a scheme for his escape by bribing the gaoler;but Socrates, as might be expected from the tone of his defence,resolutely refused to save his life by a breach of the law. Hislast discourse, on the day of his death, turned on theimmortality of the soul. With a firm and cheerful countenance hedrank the cup of hemlock amidst his sorrowing and weepingfriends. His last words were addressed to Crito:--"Crito, we owea cock to AEsculapius; discharge the debt, and by no means omitit."

Thus perished the greatest and most original of the Grecianphilosophers, whose uninspired wisdom made the nearest approachto the divine morality of the Gospel. His teaching forms anepoch in the history of philosophy. From his school sprangPlato, the founder of the Academic philosophy; Euclides, thefounder of the Megaric school; Aristippus, the founder of theCyrenaic school; and many other philosophers of eminence.

CHAPTER XV.

THE EXPEDITION OF THE GREEKS UNDER CYRUS, AND RETREAT OF THE TENTHOUSAND, B.C. 401-400.

The assistance which Cyrus had rendered to the Lacedaemonians inthe Peloponnesian war led to a remarkable episode in Grecianhistory. This was the celebrated expedition of Cyrus against hisbrother Artaxerxes, in which the superiority of Grecian toAsiatic soldiers was so strikingly shown.

The death of Darius Nothus, king of Persia, took place B.C. 404,shortly before the battle of AEgospotami. Cyrus, who was presentat his father's death, was charged by Tissaphernes with plottingagainst his elder brother Artaxerxes, who succeeded to thethrone. The accusation was believed by Artaxerxes, who seizedhis brother, and would have put him to death, but for theintercession of their mother, Parysatis, who persuaded him notonly to spare Cyrus but to confirm him in his former government.Cyrus returned to Sardis burning with revenge, and fully resolvedto make an effort to dethrone his brother.

From his intercourse with the Greeks Cyrus had become aware oftheir superiority to the Asiatics, and of their usefulness insuch an enterprise as he now contemplated. The peace whichfollowed the capture of Athens seemed favourable to his projects.Many Greeks, bred up in the practice of war during the longstruggle between that city and Sparta, were now deprived of theiremployment, whilst many more had been driven into exile by theestablishment of the Spartan oligarchies in the various conqueredcities. Under the pretence of a private war with the satrap,Tissaphernes, Cyrus enlisted large numbers of them in hisservice. The Greek in whom he placed most confidence wasClearchus, a Lacedaemonian, and formerly harmost of Byzantium,who had been condemned to death by the Spartan authorities fordisobedience to their orders.

It was not, however, till the beginning of the year B.C. 401 thatthe enterprise of Cyrus was ripe for execution. The Greek levieswere then withdrawn from the various towns in which they weredistributed, and concentrated in Sardis, to the number of about8000; and in March or April of this year Cyrus marched fromSardis with them, and with an army of 100,000 Asiatics. Theobject of the expedition was proclaimed to be an attack upon themountain-freebooters of Pisidia; its real destination was asecret to every one except Cyrus himself and Clearchus. Amongthe Greek soldiers was Xenophon, an Athenian knight, to whom weowe a narrative of the expedition. He went as a volunteer, atthe invitation of his friend Proxenus, a Boeotian, and one of thegenerals of Cyrus.

The march of Cyrus was directed through Lydia and Phrygia. afterpassing Colossae he arrived at Colaenae, where he was joined bymore Greek troops, the number of whom now amounted to 11,000hoplites and 2000 peltasts. The line of march, which had beenhitherto straight upon Pisidia, was now directed northwards.Cyrus passed in succession the Phrygian towns of Peltae, CeramonAgora, the Plain of Cayster, Thymbrium, Tyriaeum, and Iconium,the last city in Phrygia. Thence he proceeded through Lycaoniato Dana, and across Mount Taurus into Cilicia.

On arriving at Tarsus, a city on the coast of Cilicia, the Greeksplainly saw that they had been deceived, and that the expeditionwas designed against the Persian king. Seized with alarm at theprospect of so long a march, they sent a deputation to Cyrus toask him what his real intentions were. Cyrus replied that hisdesign was to march against his enemy, Abrocomas, satrap ofSyria, who was encamped on the banks of the Euphrates. TheGreeks, though they still suspected a delusion, contentedthemselves with this answer in the face of their presentdifficulties, especially as Cyrus promised to raise their payfrom one Daric to one Daric and a half a month. The whole armythen marched forwards to Issus, the last town in Cilicia, seatedon the gulf of the same name. Here they met the fleet, whichbrought them a reinforcement of 1100 Greek soldiers, thus raisingthe Grecian force to about 14,000 men.

Abrocomas, who commanded for the Great King in Syria andPhoenicia, alarmed at the rapid progress of Cyrus, fled beforehim with all his army, reported as 300,000 strong; abandoning theimpregnable pass situated one day's march from Issus, and knownas the Gates of Cilicia and Syria. Marching in safety throughthis pass, the army next reached Myriandrus, a seaport ofPhoenicia. From this place Cyrus struck off into the interior,over Mount Amanus. Twelve days' march brought him to Thapsacuson the Euphrates, where for the first time he formally notifiedto the army that he was marching to Babylon against his brotherArtaxerxes, The water happened to be very low, scarcely reachingto the breast; and Abrocomas made no attempt to dispute thepassage. The army now entered upon the desert, where the Greekswere struck with the novel sights which met their view, and atonce amused and exhausted themselves in the chase of the wild assand the antelope, or in the vain pursuit of the scudding ostrich.After several days of toilsome march the army at length reachedPylae, the entrance into the cultivated plains of Babylonia,where they halted a few days to refresh themselves.

Soon after leaving that place symptoms became perceptible of avast hostile force moving in their front. The exaggeratedreports of deserters stated it at 1,200,000 men; its realstrength was about 900,000. In a characteristic address Cyrusexhorted the Greeks to take no heed of the multitude of theirenemies; they would find in them, he affirmed nothing but numbersand noise, and, if they could bring themselves to despise these,they would soon find of what worthless stuff the natives werecomposed. The army then marched cautiously forwards, in order ofbattle, along the left bank of the Euphrates. They soon cameupon a huge trench, 30 feet broad and 18 deep, which Artaxerxeshad caused to be dug across the plain for a length of about 42English miles, reaching from the Euphrates to the wall of Media.Between it and the river was left only a narrow passage about 20feet broad; yet Cyrus and his army found with surprise that thispass was left entirely undefended. This circumstance inspiredthem with a contempt of the enemy, and induced them to proceed incareless array; but on the next day but one after passing thetrench, on arriving at a place called Cunaxa, they were surprisedwith the intelligence that Artaxerxes was approaching with allhis forces. Cyrus immediately drew up his army in order ofbattle. The Greeks were posted on the right, whilst Cyrushimself, surrounded by a picked body-guard of 600 Persiancuirassiers, took up his station in the centre. When the enemywere about half a mile distant, the Greeks engaged them with theusual war-shout. The Persians did not await their onset, butturned and fled. Tissaphernes and his cavalry alone offered anyresistance; the remainder of the Persian left was routed withouta blow. As Cyrus was contemplating the easy victory of theGreeks, his followers surrounded him, and already saluted himwith the title of king. But the centre and right of Artaxerxesstill remained unbroken; and that monarch, unaware of the defeatof his left wing, ordered the right to wheel and encompass thearmy of Cyrus. No sooner did Cyrus perceive this movement thanwith his body-guard he impetuously charged the enemy's centre,where Artaxerxes himself stood, surrounded with 6000 horse. Thelatter were routed and dispersed, and were followed so eagerly bythe guards of Cyrus, that he was left almost alone with theselect few called his "Table Companions." In this situation hecaught sight of his brother Artaxerxes, whose person was revealedby the flight of his troops, when, maddened at once by rage andambition, he shouted out, "I see the man!" and rushed at himwith his handful of companions. Hurling his javelin at hisbrother, he wounded him in the breast, but was himself speedilyoverborne by superior numbers and slain on the spot.

Meanwhile Clearchus had pursued the flying enemy upwards of threemiles; but hearing that the king's troops were victorious on theleft and centre, he retraced his steps, again routing thePersians who endeavoured to intercept him. When the Greeksregained their camp they found that it had been completelyplundered, and were consequently obliged to go supperless torest. It was not till the following day that they learned thedeath of Cyrus; tidings which converted their triumph into sorrowand dismay. They were desirous that Ariaeus who now commandedthe army of Cyrus, should lay claim to the Persian crown, andoffered to support his pretensions; but Ariaeus answered that thePersian grandees would not tolerate such a claim; that heintended immediately to retreat; and that, if the Greeks wishedto accompany him, they must join him during the following night.This was accordingly done; when oaths of reciprocal fidelity wereinterchanged between the Grecian generals and Ariaeus, andsanctified by a solemn sacrifice.

On the following day a message arrived from the Persian King,with a proposal to treat for peace on equal terms. Clearchusaffected to treat the offer with great indifference, and made itan opportunity for procuring provisions. "Tell your king," saidhe to the envoys, "that we must first fight; for we have had nobreakfast, nor will any man presume to talk to the Greeks about atruce without first providing for them a breakfast." This wasagreed to, and guides were sent to conduct the Greeks to somevillages where they might obtain food. Here they received avisit from Tissaphernes, who pretended much friendship towardsthem, and said that ha had come from the Great King to inquirethe reason of their expedition. Clearchus replied--what wasindeed true of the greater part of the army--that they had notcome hither with any design to attack the king, but had beenenticed forwards by Cyrus under false pretences; that their onlydesire at present was to return home; but that, if any obstaclewas offered, they were prepared to repel hostilities. In a dayor two Tissaphernes returned and with some parade stated that hehad with great difficulty obtained permission to SAVE the Greekarmy; that he was ready to conduct them in person into Greece;and to supply them with provisions, for which, however, they wereto pay. An agreement was accordingly entered into to thiseffect; and after many days delay they commenced the homewardmarch. After marching three days they passed through the wall ofMedia, which was 100 feet high and 20 feet broad. Two days morebrought them to the Tigris, which they crossed on the followingmorning by a bridge of boats. They then marched northward,arriving in four days at the river Physcus and a large citycalled Opis. Six days' further march through a deserted part ofMedia brought them to some villages belonging to queen Parysatis,which, out of enmity to her as the patron of Cyrus, Tissaphernesabandoned to be plundered by the Greeks. From thence theyproceeded in five days to the river Zabatus, or Greater Zab,having previously crossed the Lesser Zab, which Xenophon neglectsto mention. In the first of these five days they saw on theopposite side of the Tigris a large city called Caenae, theinhabitants of which brought over provisions to them. At theGreater Zab they halted three days. Mistrust, and even slighthostilities, had been already manifested between the Greeks andPersians, but they now became so serious that Clearchus demandedan interview with Tissaphernes. The latter protested thegreatest fidelity and friendship towards the Greeks, and promisedto deliver to the Greek generals, on the following day, thecalumniators who had set the two armies at variance. But whenClearchus, with four other generals, accompanied by some lochagesor captains, and 200 soldiers, entered the Persian camp,according to appointment; the captains and soldiers wereimmediately cut down; whilst the five generals were seized, putinto irons, and sent to the Persian court. After a shortimprisonment, four of them were beheaded; the fifth, Menon, whopretended that he had betrayed his colleagues into the hands ofTissaphernes, was at first spared; but after a year's detentionwas put to death with tortures.

Apprehension and dismay reigned among the Greeks. Theirsituation was, indeed, appalling. They were considerably morethan a thousand miles from home, in a hostile and unknowncountry, hemmed in on all sides by impassable rivers andmountains, without generals, without guides, without provisions.Xenophon was the first to rouse the captains to the necessity fortaking immediate precautions. Though young, he possessed as anAthenian citizen some claim to distinction; and his animatedaddress showed him fitted for command. He was saluted general onthe spot; and in a subsequent assembly was, with four others,formally elected to that office.

The Greeks, having first destroyed their superfluous baggage,crossed the Greater Zab, and pursued their march on the otherbank. They passed by the ruined cities of Larissa and Mespila onthe Tigris, in the neighbourhood of the ancient Nineveh. Themarch from Mespila to the mountainous country of the Carduchioccupied several days in which the Greeks suffered much from theattacks of the enemy.

Their future route was now a matter of serious perplexity. Ontheir left lay the Tigris, so deep that they could not fathom itwith their spears; while in their front rose the steep and loftymountains of the Carduchi, which came so near the river as hardlyto leave a passage for its waters. As all other roads seemedbarred, they formed the resolution of striking into thesemountains, on the farther side of which lay Armenia, where boththe Tigris and the Euphrates might be forded near their sources.After a difficult and dangerous march of seven days, during whichtheir sufferings were far greater than any they had experiencedfrom the Persians the army at length emerged into Armenia. Itwas now the month of December, and Armenia was cold and exposed,being a table-land raised high above the level of the sea.Whilst halting near some well-supplied villages, the Greeks wereovertaken by two deep falls of snow, which almost buried them intheir open bivouacs. Hence a five days' march brought them tothe eastern branch of the Euphrates. Crossing the river, theyproceeded on the other side of it over plains covered with a deepsnow, and in the face of a biting north wind. Here many of theslaves and beasts of burthen, and even a few of the soldiers,fell victims to the cold. Some had their feet frost-bitten; somewere blinded by the snow; whilst others, exhausted with cold andhunger, sunk down and died. On the eighth day they proceeded ontheir way, ascending the banks of the Phasis, not the celebratedriver of that name, but probably the one usually called Araxes.

From thence they fought their way through the country of theTaochi and Chalybes. They next reached the country of theScythini, in whose territory they found abundance in a large andpopulous city called Gymnias. The chief of this place havingengaged to conduct them within sight of the Euxine, theyproceeded for five days under his guidance; when, after ascendinga mountain, the sea suddenly burst on the view of the vanguard.The men proclaimed their joy by loud shouts of "The sea! thesea!" The rest of the army hurried to the summit, and gave ventto their joy and exultation in tears and mutual embraces. A fewdays' march through the country of the Macrones and Colchians atlength brought them to the objects for which they had so oftenpined, and which many at one time had never hoped to see again--a Grecian city and the sea. By the inhabitants of Trapezus orTrebizond, on the Euxine, where they had now arrived, they werehospitably received, and, being cantoned in some Colchianvillages near the town, refreshed themselves after the hardshipsthey had undergone by a repose of thirty days.

The most difficult part of the return of the Ten Thousand was nowaccomplished, and it is unnecessary to trace the remainder oftheir route. After many adventures they succeeded in reachingByzantium, and they subsequently engaged to serve theLacedaemonians in a war which Sparta had just declared againstthe satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus.

In the spring of B.C. 399, Thimbron, the Lacedaemonian commander,arrived at Pergamus, and the remainder of the Ten Thousand Greeksbecame incorporated with his army. Xenophon now returned toAthens, where he must have arrived shortly after the execution ofhis master Socrates. Disgusted probably by that event, herejoined his old comrades in Asia, and subsequently returned toGreece along with Agesilaus.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SUPREMACY OF SPARTA, B.C. 404-371.

After the fall of Athens, Sparta stood without a rival in Greece.In the various cities which had belonged to the Athenian empireLysander established an oligarchical Council of Ten, called aDECARCHY or Decemvirate, subject to the control of a SpartanHARMOST or governor. The Decarchies, however, remained only ashort time in power, since the Spartan government regarded themwith jealousy as the partisans of Lysander; but harmostscontinued to be placed in every state subject to their empire.The government of the harmosts was corrupt and oppressive; nojustice could be obtained against them by an appeal to theSpartan authorities at home; and the Grecian cities soon hadcause to regret the milder and more equitable sway of Athens.

On the death of Agis in B.C. 398, his half-brother Agesilaus wasappointed King, to the exclusion of Leotychides, the son of Agis.This was mainly effected by the powerful influence of Lysander,who erroneously considered Agesilaus to be of a yielding andmanageable disposition and hoped by a skilful use of thosequalities to extend his own influence, and under the name ofanother to be in reality king himself.

Agesilaus was now forty years of age, and esteemed a model ofthose virtues more peculiarly deemed Spartan. He was obedient tothe constituted authorities, emulous to excel, courageous,energetic, capable of bearing all sorts of hardship and fatigue,simple and frugal in his mode of life. To these severerqualities he added the popular attractions of an agreeablecountenance and pleasing address. His personal defects at firststood in the way of his promotion. He was not only low instature, but also lame of one leg; and there was an ancientoracle which warned the Spartans to beware of "a lame reign."The ingenuity of Lysander, assisted probably by the popularqualities of Agesilaus, contrived to overcome this objection byinterpreting a lame reign to mean not any bodily defect in theking, but the reign of one who was not a genuine descendant ofHercules. Once possessed of power, Agesilaus supplied any defectin his title by the prudence and policy of his conduct; and, bythe marked deference which he paid both to the Ephors and thesenators, he succeeded in gaining for himself more real powerthan had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors.

The affairs of Asia Minor soon began to draw the attention ofAgesilaus to that quarter. The assistance lent to Cyrus by theSpartans was no secret at the Persian court; and Tissaphernes,who had been rewarded for his fidelity with the satrapy of Cyrusin addition to his own, no sooner returned to his government thanhe attacked the Ionian cities, then under the protection ofSparta. A considerable Lacedaemonian force under Thimbron wasdespatched to their assistance, and which, as related in thepreceding chapter, was joined by the remnant of the Greeks whohad served under Cyrus. Thimbron, however, proved so inefficienta commander, that he was superseded at the end of 399 orbeginning of 398 B.C., and Dercyllidas appointed in his place.But though at first successful against Pharnabazus in AEolis,Dercyllidas was subsequently surprised in Caria in such anunfavourable position that he would have suffered severely butfor the timidity of Tissaphernes, who was afraid to venture uponan action. Under these circumstances an armistice was agreed tofor the purpose of treating for a peace (397 B.C.).

Pharnabazus availed himself of this armistice to make activepreparations for a renewal of the war. He obtained largereinforcements of Persian troops, and began to organize a fleetin Phoenicia and Cilicia. This was intrusted to the Athenianadmiral Conon, of whom we now first hear again after a lapse ofseven years since his defeat at AEgospotami. After thatdisastrous battle Conon fled with nine triremes to Cyprus, wherehe was now living under the protection of Evagoras, prince ofSalamis.

It was the news of these extensive preparations that inducedAgesilaus, on the suggestion of Lysander, to volunteer hisservices against the Persians. He proposed to take with him only30 full Spartan citizens, or peers, to act as a sort of council,together with 2000 Neodamodes, or enfranchised Helots, and 6000hoplites of the allies. Lysander intended to be the leader ofthe 30 Spartans, and expected through them to be the virtualcommander of the expedition of which Agesilaus was nominally thehead.

Since the time of Agamemnon no Grecian king had led an army intoAsia; and Agesilaus studiously availed himself of the prestige ofthat precedent in order to attract recruits to his standard. TheSpartan kings claimed to inherit the sceptre of Agamemnon; and torender the parallel more complete, Agesilaus proceeded with adivision of his fleet to Aulis, intending there to imitate thememorable sacrifice of the Homeric hero. But as he had neglectedto ask the permission of the Thebans, and conducted the sacrificeand solemnities by means of his own prophets and ministers, andin a manner at variance with the usual rites of the temple, theThebans were offended, and expelled him by armed force:--aninsult which he never forgave.

It was in 396 B.C. that Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus and took thecommand in Asia. He demanded of the Persians the completeindependence of the Greek cities in Asia; and in order that theremight be time to communicate with the Persian court, thearmistice was renewed for three months. During this interval ofrepose, Lysander, by his arrogance and pretensions, offended bothAgesilaus and the Thirty Spartans. Agesilaus, determined touphold his dignity, subjected Lysander to so many humiliationsthat he was at last fain to request his dismissal from Ephesus,and was accordingly sent to the Hellespont, where he did goodservice to the Spartan interests.

Meanwhile Tissaphernes, having received large reinforcements,sent a message to Agesilaus before the armistice had expired,ordering him to quit Asia. Agesilaus immediately madepreparations as if he would attack Tissaphernes in Caria; buthaving thus put the enemy on a false scent, he suddenly turnednorthwards into Phrygia, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, and marchedwithout opposition to the neighbourhood of Dascylium, theresidence of the satrap himself. Here, however, he was repulsedby the Persian cavalry. He now proceeded into winter quarters atEphesus, where be employed himself in organizing a body ofcavalry to compete with the Persians. During the winter the armywas brought into excellent condition; and Agesilaus gave outearly in the spring of 395 B.C. that he should march direct uponSardis. Tissaphernes suspecting another feint, now dispersed hiscavalry in the plain of the Maeander. But this time Agesilausmarched as he had announced, and in three days arrived unopposedon the banks of the Pactolus, before the Persian cavalry could be